Haircut!

As in every relationship, sometimes Vietnam and I have our disagreements. The arguments can get pretty intense.

I say things like, "You're not half the country my last country was!"
And Vietnam says things like, "Well you look fat in those skinny jeans!"
And I say, "Well good thing I'm leaving in 3 months so you never have to look at my fat rear-end again!"
And Vietnam says, "Awesome! Then I can find a new American girl who isn't such a prude!"
And I say, "Fine!"
And Vietnam says, "Fine!"

But today Vietnam and I had one of those days where we mostly got along and didn't even fight in front of the kids.

I drank a latte, did some compulsive shopping, and got this adorable haircut for under $20.

See, Vietnam? We can make this work.

Lovin' in Laos

I spent my Valentine’s Day with a former-monk-Laotian-man named Somkidh.

And that wasn’t even the best part of my trip! That’s how amazing Laos is!

After my very long vacation I’m having trouble forming coherent transitions, so I’m going to use the numbered approach to tell you why Luang Prabang, Laos is a banging good time.

1. The Town Itself-
If Disney World is “The happiest place on Earth,” Luang Prabang is definitely “The cutest place on Earth.” LP became a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1995, selected for its unique blend of preserved 18th-19th European/Traditional Lao architecture and interspersed ancient Wats (temples). The storefronts and guest houses lining the main streets look like they’ve been ripped out of a 1930 edition of “Indochine’s Real Estate Monthly.” The only downside to the insane colonial cuteness of this place is that it’s filled with tourists and ex-pats who, like me, are tickled by its charm. The preserved colonial vibe melded with the high influx of westerners can sometimes give the town that “Epcot” feel. You know: a bunch of white people walking around looking at things that are culturally more interesting than anything they’ve got going on. Maybe that’s a little harsh...Nevertheless, the Epcotness dissolves when you get even just a little outside the town and see that the real Laos, and the Laotian people, are even more charming than the tourist town.



2. BeerLao-
I may sometimes talk a good game about drinking, but the truth is that when it comes to beer, my bark is far worse than my bite. Yes, some people have seen me slightly inebriated (and I’m still trying make it up to my sister for the unfortunate happenings of her rehearsal dinner...and subsequent wedding day), but for the most part I’m not a big beer drinker. But something inside of me changed in Laos.

BeerLao is fantastic. Its light, but not lame. Its filling, but didn’t make me feel fat. It gave me a buzz, but didn’t make me barf. BeerLao may have changed my alcoholic life. I even bought myself a BeerLao t-shirt. Who AM I?



3. Arts/Handicrafts/Shopping Scene-

Ironically enough, living in Southeast Asia has made me the shopper that I never really was in America. It’s just so easy to say, “Never again in my life will I be able to buy anything remotely akin to this so I must have it now or why the hell did I even move here!!!??!!!!”

I especially love anything arts-and-handicraft-like. Woven scarves, quilts, baskets, paper lanterns, small paintings, bowls, jewelry....the list goes on and on.

My room is starting to look like I’ve joined a local Hmong tribe, or at least raided the nearby village.


Luang Prabang did nothing to curb my shopping enthusiasm. The craftsmanship of the local artisans is just really fantastic. I’m also a total sucker when the actual artist/weaver/painter is the one selling me his or her wares; I make it my mission to be a global patron of the arts and end up buying in bulk. On top of this, I am the world’s worst bargainer. Every time I try to haggle, I feel like I am stealing food from the mouths of Southeast Asian babies. The result is that I often get ripped off, but I sleep soundly dreaming of well fed Laotian children and how great that market basket will look holding towels in the bathroom of my Upper West Side dream house.




(Upper West Side Dream House)

4. Monks-
Many people are drawn to LP by the many ancient Buddhist Wats. The Wats are all over town, and working, living, and learning in these Wats are young novices and older monks. Some of these novices are quite frankly pint-sized. The monks in Laos practice Theravata Buddhism and therefore cannot buy their own food. Instead, they collect alms in the morning for their one meal-a-day. While Luang Prabang is trying to keep this ritual holy, the whole thing has become something of a tourist attraction. Still, watching the monks collect alms from local people can be a very beautiful and affecting scene. I was most moved when I saw some of the young novices taking food out of their own alms basket to give to local children.



As I mentioned earlier, I had my own special experience with a former monk. Somkidh was my guide on a bike-tour of the town. Anne--Remember Anne my friend from college who’s a Fulbrighter in Thailand? Well she came to Laos with me!--But,well, poor Anne got sick at the beginning of the tour, so Somkidh and I were on our own for the day. Somkidh left the monkhood (real word?) a few years ago after spending 5 years as a novice and 2 years as a monk. He lived and studied at this Wat:




As it was Valentine’s Day, Somkidh and I of course talked about our respective trials and triumphs in love. Somkidh told me a story about how a few months after he left the monkhood (?) he was “a crazy man” and took a few too many shots of liquid-courage-rice-wine before his first date back in action as an eligible bachelor. He ended up waking up in his old Wat 3 days later, not remembering a thing. I told him everyone’s been there...metaphorically speaking. Not necessarily to his Buddhist Wat...

A lot of the Wats have this little horoscope thing where you pray to Buddha, shake a container of sticks with numbers on it, pick one of the sticks, and then read your horoscope on a corresponding numbered piece of paper. The horoscope was written in Bali Sanskrit, so Somkidh had to help me out. Somkidh looked at the first horoscope I chose and quickly shook his head and told me to pick another. I didn’t ask why.



When he read my second horoscope, hi face lit up and he said, “Oh, Maddee...this is maybe the best fortune. It says someone may try to steal your money or something like that, but they never will. And someone might try to stop your career or something like that, but you will always be a success. And your boyfriend or something like that will meet another woman, but he will always love you and hate her forever.”


I loved Somkidh.


5.ELEPHANTS- Just outside Luang Prabang, there is a reserve for rescued logging elephants. It’s called Elephant Village. http://www.elephantvillage-laos.com/. The following pictures speak for themselves.











Visit Laos!

What's Hot in Kampot?

So Yeah. Cambodia was pretty fascinating. After the trip to Siem Reap/Angkor Wat and Phnom Penh, Corinne, Emily and I headed to Kampot. While we loved our first two stops in Cambodia, we were looking to get away from the droves of tourists. For our third and final stop, we headed to a little river town called Kampot.

Driving through the Cambodian countryside, you can definitely see resemblances to the South of Vietnam. The starkest difference between the two Mekong-sharing countries is really the size of population; Cambodia just has so many fewer people than Vietnam!!You drive through Vietnam, even in the countryside, and the roads are fully lined with cinderblock houses and the traffic never seems to let up. In Cambodia, the traditional wooden houses are scattered hundreds of meters apart, and there are stretches of road with nary a motorbike in sight.

Cambodia also appears to be at a younger stage of development than Vietnam. That being said, the tourism is certainly just as, if not more so, developed in Cambodia. With fewer people and a more concentrated area of tourists than, say, Hanoi, the cities in Cambodia feel more accessible. However, outside the main cities, Cambodia seems to be living in that stage of development where a country is finally on a somewhat even keel, but has not yet started cleaning out its cupboards--whereas Vietnam has emptied its cupboards and is now hurling cans of peas and corn in every direction. It’ll be interesting to see how further change comes to Cambodia, versus how development and rebuilding has succotash-ed Vietnam.

But enough about that! What’s Hot in Kampot?!


Emily and Corinne, obviously.

Kampot is cute. Cute town. Cute restaurants. Cute kids. The only thing to do there is really eat by the river (which is lovely) and go up to Bokor National Park (which we did).

A charming young Cambodia man named You-Run (phonetically) was our guide. And here's a special message for my mom:

We were told there would be a 2 1/2 hour hike up the mountain before arriving at what was once a French hill station. We were not told the 2 1/2 hour hike up the mountain would be more like a 2 1/2 hour hike up the steep side of a cliff.






Eventually we made it to the top, or almost to the top; they sent a truck to pick us up for the last leg. The hill station was kind of freaky. If Angkor Wat is ancient ruins, this place is modern ruins. The French left in 1954, but Cambodian people still lived in the town and stayed in the hotel until the Khmer Rouge drove them out in 1975. Today all that’s left are the stone shells of a ghost town, some of which has been riddled by Khmer Rouge bullets. Spooky, yes, but kind of cool to explore.




The most exciting (not in a good way) event of my day came when I realized I was missing my camera. We were away from the old hotel at that point, but I thought maybe I’d left the camera on the back steps. You-Run ran with me back to the hotel, but neither of us could find the camera.

Surprise, surprise, I started to cry...Then You-Run said that he felt like crying, too...it was all quite a scene.

Then You-Run remembered that a lady selling drinks by the abandoned hotel had quickly gathered her things and suspiciously skedaddled away after I had bought some crackers. She lived nearby, so You-Run called the local ranger and said we would go see her.

On the way, You-Run asked if I had any money. I said yes.

Next You-Run asked if I would pay money for my camera. I said yes.

We went to the woman’s house and asked her if she had my camera. She saw my $20 and said yes.

Bribery, anyone?

You-Run was very upset about the whole thing, but who could blame the lady? I’m the idiot who left my camera on the cracker table:(.

And that, my friends, brings us to the end of my Cambodia trip...All in all, Cambodia was quaint, hip, and educational; the three best qualities a place can possess, if you ask me.

Next stop: Laos!! Let’s just say there were elephants....stay tuned.

The Killing Fields

The most memorable part of my Cambodia trip was visiting the Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum and the Choeung Ek Killing Fields. I had a basic knowledge of the Cambodian Genocide and the Khmer Rouge before my trip, but looking back I don't really remember learning about that time of history in any high school or college class. History classes always seemed to get only as far as Kennedy's assassination and the Vietnam War before the semester ended.

Didn't they know a lot has happened since then!?

I figure this mind-gap of history is probably the case for a lot of other Americans as well. I made this video slide show to try to put together the pieces of what happened in Cambodia for myself, and maybe it can fill in some gaps for other people, too.

While Cambodia's recent history is grim, the country does appear to be healing. Just last year Cambodian High Schools began teaching about the Khmer Rouge and genocide in history classes. A better understanding of their own history will only help the Cambodian people to continue to move forward.

Angkor Wat-ch This.

Live at Time of Tape

A few weeks ago I had this great idea: I would "liveblog" my Southeast Asian Adventure! I told my friends, and they were all like, "Well, are you going to have a webcam and have people sign on to talk to you live? Are you going to live update as you go like Twitter? Is anything about the liveblogging actually going to be live?"

I told them no....BUT we could make videos! And the videos would be live-at-time-of-tape!

They were unimpressed and kind of confused, saying everything is "live-at-time-of-tape."

So my dreams of liveblogging were squashed. To be perfectly honest, I don't really understand liveblogging either... Blogging isn't like chatting, so the second you post the words or pictures or movies, they are then in the past, right? So what is actually "live" about "liveblogging?" The "liveblogging" inevitably becomes "pastblogging," and I'm not interested in saying my "pastblogging" is "liveblogging" when there's nothing live about it!

Rather than deal with the liveblogging conundrum, or with the bigger existential crisis of "What is time?", I decided to just try to update every 2 or 3 days. Seeing as I finish the Cambodia leg of my trip tomorrow, that obviously didn't happen either. I'm sorry.

And now I'd like to tell you all about Angkor Wat, Phnom Penh , and Kampot, but I'm feeling really sleepy. I know I wouldn't be able to do my pictures/stories any justice in my current condition, and tomorrow I catch a plane for Laos, where I'll be completely incommunicado for 4 more days, so why break the silence now?

Instead of the slideshow/movies/magic I'll be posting eventually, I will tell you this: Cambodia has been awesome, and I can't wait to show it off...
In the meantime: check out these few live pics.







(**All pictures were live at time of shot)

"When I was in 'Nam" goes Global!

My school is closing for two weeks for the Lunar New Year, which I means I get to use my 2 week "leave of country" allowance. I'll be doing a whirlwind 5 day tour of Cambodia before hopping up to Luang Prabang, Laos to spend some quality time in and around the Jungle. There will be elephants.

Depending on the internet capabilities of Angkor Wat, I will try to update as I go. Apparently the place has been around forever, so you'd think they'd at least have wifi by now. Stay tuned...



Gosh I love the look of visas in my Passport...

Little Italy, Viet Nam

Last week while I was talking to Scott on Skype, it came up that I had never seen THE GODFATHER. Like all men of a certain age and ethnic background, and especially men of a certain city, he was appropriately aghast. So he made me an offer I couldn’t refuse: he would send me the GODFATHER movies via iTunes, and I would enjoy them. Like it or not.

And truth be told I did like them. Now, I admit I couldn’t watch all the killing scenes. If I knew one was coming, I would keep listening but minimize the movie window on my computer. As you might imagine, a decent portion of Francis Ford Coppola’s footage was spent in a little box at the bottom of my Mac’s screen.

Still, it was a couple of solid hours well spent, and it put me in the perfect mood for one the most exciting things that has happened to me since I moved to Hai Duong City, Viet Nam.

THE OPENING OF AN ITALIAN RESTAURANT.

A decent amount of my writing on this blog has been spent talking about my culinary trials and triumphs. I know you get it: I eat chicken, I eat vegetables, I sometimes get sick, and I miss my Mama’s cooking.

A few weeks ago I saw a sign going up in front of a new restaurant in town reading “Ristorante Italia.” I was intrigued of course, but also skeptical, thinking it was fairly possible that this “Ristorante’s” pizza might be served with a topping of chicken feet. But today I walked through those red, white, and green striped doors and felt like Vito Corleone himself was looking down on me from heaven.

There were frescoes of the Sicilian countryside painted alongside the faux brick and cracks. There were vines dangling plastic grapes from the ceiling and racks upon racks of wine bottles lining the walls. There was also a single rose on every table, alongside little bottles of olive oil and mini pepper grinders.



And then I saw them. In the little office off the first floor of the restaurant. Two men. Middle aged. Salt and pepper slicked back hair. Portly stomachs.

Real Italians. Running a real Italian restaurant. I was so happy I almost cried.

I got settled into my table-for-one and ordered an amazing Margherita pizza with pesto and a decadent tiramisu for dessert. Mr. Arno Sorbella came over and introduced himself to me. He guaranteed everything was homemade and the cheese was imported. After lunch, he gave me a tour of the kitchen, showed me the custom made pizza oven, and told me to call a day ahead if I ever wanted anything that wasn’t on the menu. He also gave me a “Pizza passport” card, so every 11th pizza I buy will be free.

Give me a week or two.